Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Riding out to O, mostly obeying the law, but running late nonetheless.

C • Time traveler 1

Fun, fast race at Danehy. I may or may not have gone off map along Sherman Street to get to one of the controls and there's all sorts of discussion over on Alex's AP about that; it wasn't marked out of bounds, it just wasn't there. Here be dragons, apparently. I would have won the split except that I had to run away from the fire-breathing dragon.

(It actually might make sense to mark it out of bounds since you're running through driveways and the like.)

I did well with the moving features (soccer games, etc) and it helps now to know Danehy well from various trainings. Back to the woods next week!

And the bike ride home, with a stop for groceries.

Sprint - Splits

40 sections of the stadium today. Legs are fine, core still sore from Monday. Felt good, especially once I got out of the sun. 29:26 for the 37 sections including a minute or so to move several bags out of the way. So that's not bad. Was going hard but not super-hard. Don't have my climbing legs back yet.

In other news, I signed up for a 50k this weekend. Looks like it has all of about 2000 feet of climb (half the climb of the one I did last year), which should be flat, and on ski trails with good footing. Cool (60s) and dry; 4:30 should be doable, 4:15 possible? Going on that old marathon training. I hate my legs and I want them to die. Also, for those of you following along, I'm running a 50k in my SOB month (strength, orienteering, beer) when I should be lounging and recovering.

Was going to run but got home late from work, still sore from yesterday, and realized it's still SOB month. So, early to bed, early to rise, go and run stairs. I don't have to do junk miles. Especially since I might run a 50k on Sunday.

Ran to NP, decently fast and decently late. With a deck of cards. Give me a deck of cards workout and I well may show up!

The deck returns! I need to do more of these. We went decently fast, and I only dropped twelve push ups behind, and it was so fun. I really wish November Project would get rid of the cutesy morning workouts and do these. It's just much more … fun.

There were burpies at the beginning, but I honored my no burpies policy and did not do them.

And the run home

Event: NEOC: Mt. Tom
 

Event: Urban Adventure Run
 

Out to O with Dean. Lots of traffic for people going to the airshow, but at least they stuck in the breakdown lane and didn't foul the mainline. Quick warm up on the brand new pavement road ROLLERSKII!.

Orienteering is fun! Having done a decent amount recently I'm getting more of the feel of it and not getting hopelessly lost. Time to add speed, but it was very warm today, and pants were a must, and I was hot and dehydrated, lots of mosquitos, so that didn't help. Navigated pretty cleanly (no huge errors, no major contact lost) but a lot of jiggles and niggles. Controls:

1. Run through the woods, find control.
2. Down a bit too close to the swamp, then along the swamp and across the top, but because it's been dry I went to the wrong cliff. To make matters worse, it had a faded permanent control. Too me a while to realize there was another.
3. Around the hill, attacked off the spur.
4. Down to the little swamp and trail junction, down the trail to the curve, above the rocky hill, across a stream. This went well, I was happy.
5. Two streams, then a slog up a steep hill on to a little step, and a couple niggly hills.
6. Tried to contour, this was bad. I spent a lot of time just grasping at rocks and trees and trying not to fall or slide down the hill. Not good. Finally ran down a bit and then up to the trail. The rocks for the controls were very cool! Awesome traprock formations. Not what you normally associate with a black circle. Fun!
7. Easy run over the hill, a little off but spotted well.
8. Tried to contour but got sucked down the reentrant as contouring on these slopes is rough. Not a terrible route but not well executed. Finally found the green and the control.
9. Navigated towards the circle well, but wound up at the dot hill below the control. Realized I was low and ran up to find it. Whoops.
10. Slog up the spur left of the rocky reentrant. Definitely feeling the heat by this point.
11. Navigated this well. Dam. Step. Swamp. Control.
12. Ran down the spur to the stream. Then around the green hill through some rocks. I wasn't sure where I was but decided I was right and went right to the control. Accidental spike!
13. Contoured well and wound up right at the stream junction, but then attacked too far up along the stream and wound up behind the hill, so had to come back over.
14. Brain was shutting down with heat, but I was able to go down along the stream and attack off the big ass rock in the stream. Rock wasn't that big, but was the only rock in the stream, so I assumed it was right. Fumbled to the control.
15. Down to road. Avoid climb and thinking. Saw guy who said "I'm hopelessly lost." Well, dude, at least you're on a road!
16. Up reentrant.
17. So my brain was pretty fried, as was my body. Looked like a choice between contours or green. I didn't like either. So I ran down to the road and then up the trail. Faster? Probably not, but in that state, I was happy just to have some time to turn off the brain. Easy to find the control off the trail.
18. Scooter down the hill, control visible, then finish.

So, a good time. Decent navigation, and some decent running. Didn't do that well in the heat, but I'm just starting to regain the feel for O. Of course with the heat, bugs and foliage, it's nearing the end of spring O season. Well, the trails await!

Quick cool down, good for me. Alex was off playing somewhere. She did two courses and a trail run. So I'm soft.

Then we went out the rollerski road, and then realized that the Pike was jammed so went off on 202. Long stop for lunch mainly because the lunch place forgot my order for a malted, but I got my ice cream, and then ran out of water on Route 2, but that's okay. Took the train from Alewife. Dehydration!

Blue - Splits

didn't log anything today despite spending 3 hours on a bike! I was sweep for the Cambridge Bicycle Committee ride, which plods along at 7 mph or so, then went to Porchfest, then dug holes for tomatoes. The tomatoes were probably the most loggable; we have tall plants and needed deep holes! Also did about 40 more pullups: 1000 this month is possible!

After a week of no pullups with a strained forearm, I'm back! I'm up to 280 this month, so 1000 for the month is within reach if I get to 50 a day (I think I've done that so far today). Sets of 10 are going fine, back-to-back sets of 10 are close (back to back sets are generally 8-7) and I'm thinking of pushing up to sets of 12 or 13 and then 15 and then 20. SOB season is going well.

Got home from work—after a guy tailgated me and then threatened me (yup, got out of the car and yelled at me because I wouldn't pull over to let him by on a one-lane-wide street with packed cars on both sides, but I stood there with a helmet, U-lock and witness and he went back in to his hole)—and wanted to ride bikes!

The 20 mile ride up through Winchvegas and then down the Minuteman is a great ride for May-Aug when it's easy to do even if you don't get out of work until 6. Felt pretty ducky, too, even if I did hit a lot of lights on the way out.